Education, 



354 



[April, 1912. 



verse criticism than those of approval, 

 not because the former would be more 

 numerous if I spoke of each detail in the 

 course, but because I suppose you wish 

 suggestions for improvement rather 

 than mere praise. 



" 1. Are the stories told in language 

 work the native stories ; or are they 

 stories of American, English and German 

 inheritance ? So large a portion of your 

 school population is oriental, that it 

 would seem highly desirable to have 

 your fairy tales, fables, rhymes, etc, 

 very largely oriental in origin. 



" 2. Are the punctuation marks to be 

 taught in each grade carefully listed ? If 

 a more general recommendation to teach 

 punctuation is given out, it is likely that 

 no one teacher will feel responsible for 

 the teaching of particular marks. 



" 3. Your nature study program seems 

 to include rather too much observation 

 and too little actual growing of plants or 

 animals, etc., although this element is 

 not entirely lacking in it. 



"4. Your illustrative work, which 

 stands, I suppose, for drawing, seems to 

 aim rather more than it should at the 

 development of mere technical skill with 

 the pencil and brush, and the capacity 

 to make working drawings or semi- 

 scientific representations of objects.... 



" Your course in Geography seems to 

 emphasize too much and too early the 

 scientific study of the subject. The 

 social side of it— conditions of life the 

 world over— should be very strong at 

 the beginning, and should yield only 

 at the end to the scientific aspects of 

 the subject. 



"6. It would seem to me that you 

 introduce technical Grammar rather too 

 early in Grade IV. 



"7. Your History seems to me to 

 emphasize too much at the beginning 

 American history ; it would seem natural 

 to start somewhere nearer home. 



"8. Your course in nature study, 

 introducing scientific experiments in 

 Grade V . seems to be too advanced. " 



(Note).— In regard to the statement 

 that the course of study seems too diffi- 

 cult, it may be said that that depends 

 upon how exhaustively each subject is 

 treated in the different grades. If larger 

 or vital points of subjects are taken up 

 and minor details left out, the course is 

 not so difficult as it may appear at first 

 glance. The difficulty comes in attempt- 

 ing to teach too many things in the 

 subjects not worth teaching. 



1. In answer to question " 1 " I would 

 say that the stories told in language 

 work comprise stories of Hawaiian, 

 Japanese and Chinese origin as well as 

 those of English and German inheritance. 

 In the first grade, for instance, we have 

 " Kila, the Canoe Builder," tales from 

 Hawaiian history. " Hok Lee," Chinese. 

 " The Monkey and the Crab," Japanese, 

 fairy tales from China and Japan, etc. 

 Anglo-Saxon stories predominate to in- 

 culcate ideas of our civilization. 



2. Punctuation is part of writing, and 

 as the sentence is written on the board, 

 the child is familiarized with the neces- 

 sary punctuation marks as with the 

 words used. 



3. This criticism is just so far as the 

 nature study program is set forth in the 

 manual, but the growing of plants, etc., 

 is very generally continued in school 

 gardening and manual work. 



4. Illustrative work includes modeling 

 in sand and clay, chalk modeling (land 

 forms) on blackboards, pencil and crayon 

 work, pen and ink work, painting in 

 water colours, marking and dramatiz- 

 ation, not with the idea of developing 

 technical skill, to make working drawings 

 or semi-scientific representation of ob- 

 jects, but to express thought through 

 the organization of the child's powers, 



5. Nature Study and Geography in 

 the lower grades do emphasize the social 

 side of the study very strongly as shown 

 in the detailed outline of the course of 

 study. 



6. The directions in the course which 

 seems to require the teaching of formal 

 grammar in the lower grades may be 

 misleading, but the intent and practice 



